Early Access Defined
With Veteran devs hailing from Dragon Age, Pillars of Eternity and other juggernauts from the RPG world, The Waylanders definitely shows some promise in Early Access form on Steam. While Early Access can be slapped on just about anything these days from early Alphas to near-perfection quality, The Waylanders falls somewhere in between. Instead of writing an endless novel on an ever changing (frequently updated) game, here are a few things work with the game and others that don’t.
What Works:
The stylized graphics are definitely gorgeous and fall somewhere in between an interactive cartoon and a glossy, futuristic sci fi RPG that looks. Overall, it looks and runs fantastic
The music, sounds and voice acting overall fine despite some dialogue choices (See below)
The spells and combat are definitely flashy and coming together quite nicely
Being able to pause combat and tactically execute commands is a fantastic nod to Dragon Age and similar old school RPGs
What Needs Improvement
The voice acting ranging from compelling to laughable, mainly due to profanity and mature dialogue choices that don’t fit the graphical style, mood, or “feel” of the game. Generally speaking, the slight nudity and especially profanity feel out of place and forced
While still in Early Access, the beginning of the game needs to be polished to really draw players in. This is an RPG but the first 30 mins or so, I was neither engaged or intrigued.
It might be a better idea to finish and release certain areas and cutscenes. It current form it feels disjointed
Overall, this is indeed a promising title and you can tell there is talent behind the scenes and fantastic game just lying beneath the surface. If you are looking for a very unique and “nothing cookie cutter” type of RPG, check out The Waylanders on Steam, for 10% now.
